The life of a country gardener.

30th June. New discovery.

Whilst searching for a supplier of a tree I saw in Lord Heseltines garden recently (Pterocarya insignis) I stumbled across an amazing little nursery called Pan - Global plants. Nick Macer the owner spends the winter months traveling to remote far away places  to bring back new and exciting plants. I can't wait to get to his nursery and garden to have a look (and bring back some plants of course). You must check out this website too where Nick has posted some stunning photos from his last  trip to Mexico. 

Unfortunately Nick didn't have any of these trees for sale (he has three of his own!) so if anyone knows where I can get one please let me know. 

16th June. Garden open again.

On Sunday we opened the garden here for the third time this year. While numbers were slightly down on our spring opening it was still busy enough! The weather was quite hot so I think lots of people would have been in their pool or BBQing instead. Our visitors made themselves at home though having a nap in the sleeping garden and taking a swim! Everyone I spoke to commented on the view from the garden to Felsted. By pure coincidence this field was ablaze with poppies. It belongs to a local farmer who has a reputation for not being able to grow anything successfully - maybe he should try wildflowers.

15th June. Lord Heseltines garden visit.

Another busy weekend out of the way. On Saturday I trekked (not literally) across the country to visit Lord Heseltines garden on the Oxfordshire / Northamptonshire border. It took a lot longer than anticipated to get there after the Sat. Nav. decided it wasn't going to help and the absence of any kind of road map in the car! We had to rely on the old fashioned method of reading road signs, sitting in traffic jams and screaming at each other! After a lovely lunch we had calmed down and enjoyed a nice stroll around the gardens. 

While not entirely my thing (landscape garden mostly), there were lots of features in the garden I liked.

Firstly my Fontaine Aixoise - found in only the grandest of gardens! looked stunning amongst a bed of rolling clipped box. Unfortunately box blight had got to much of the box in the garden, this planting is the least affected. 

The house itself was stunning, with it's symmetrical proportions and huge windows overlooking the surrounding landscape. 

In the woodland areas three were many fine specimen trees including Cornus covered in milky white bracts, Davidia involucrata (pocket hankerchief tree) and the amazing Pterocarya Insignis which I cannot find (to buy) anywhere! 

The walled vegetable garden has to be the grandest I've seen with many wierd and wonderful features like the huge aviary, the auricula theatre, strange gazebo like structures all over as well as lawns and box hedging. There was a lovely Georgian 'gardeners cottage' on the edge of the garden for which I'd be very happy to take on the role of head gardener!

For more photos of the garden at Thenford click here.

12th June 09. Great news!

After a rubbish week it is really nice to get some good news. I just had a e-mail from garden photographer Suzie Gibbons (who recently did a photo shoot in the garden here) who wanted to let me know that 'Homes & Gardens' magazine plan to run a feature on the garden, business and myself! It won't be out until next spring but something to look forward to. Will keep you posted as to when it's expected.

In the meantime why not come along this Sunday and see the garden for yourself? We're opening this Sunday 14th from 1 till 5pm. 

June 10th. Massacre in the meadow.

I have just noticed that the husband instructed our groundsman yesterday to strim down the 'overgrown stuff' along a driveway of approx 200m by 3m deep. The 'overgrown stuff' in question was a drift of wildflowers on the cusp of flowering! Would fellow gardeners agree that that is a sackable offence? I'm talking about the husband not the groundsman (he was just following orders - although he should know better than not to check with me first!). 

What makes the cutting down of these wildflowers all the more upsetting is that the wildflower meadow I have tried to create behind the greenhouse here has failed miserably this year. It is full of docks and horsetail, and there's not a flower to be seen, despite the seeds scattered and allowing last years flowers to set seed. They do say it's incredibly hard to make a successful wildflower meadow - it seems to be a full time job.

Whilst I'm having a moan I may as well moan about the weather and say how the torrential rain today has ruined all the roses that were looking fabulous, and once I have deadheaded all the soggy ones there won't be much of a show for the open garden this Sunday.

However on the bright side I'm looking forward to visiting Lord Heseltines garden (I wonder if his roses have been ruined too?) this Saturday and lunch prior at Le Manoir. 

June 7th. Radio interview.

Yesterday I spent the morning at BBC Essex and was interviewed by gardening expert Ken Crowther. When they first asked if I would go on their show I was a little nervous at the thought of being interviewed live as I was sure to say something stupid! After my excuses ran out (I have a bad cough can we record it?!) I couldn't avoid it any longer and reluctantly took myself into the station.

 

It turned out to be much easier than expected thanks to Ken who is an experienced interviewer - although my interview only lasted five minutes so maybe he thought he'd better get me off air!

We talked about why I open the garden for the NGS, what the garden is like, how the website came about and rambled on for far too long about dogs in the garden. 

I'll try to find a way of adding the clip here but in the meantime if you want to hear the interview you have until Saturday lunchtime to listen on BBC iPlayer (I think this link should get you there  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0038k0c/Essex_Gardening_06_06_2009/) fast forward the show (if you don't want to listen to three hours of chat) to about 2 hours and 28 mins.  

26th May. Monaco Grand Prix

My usual girls weekend away that takes place at this time of year while the boys do the Monaco Grand Prix has been credit crunched (well it is usually quite extravagant even by my standards). We're going to do something later in the year instead. 

So the boys took pity on me and invited me to join them in Monaco for the weekend. The weekend was mostly about cars, food and people watching, however even in the most unlikely of places can I find horticultural gems! 

On this occasion it was the planting at our villa in nearby Beaulieu that impressed me (not 'our' villa but a friends villa with whom we were staying). The gardens had recently been re landscaped with a stunning black infinity pool being the focal point (the stone having been imported from New Zealand!) and lush Mediterranean plants surrounding. There were some huge citrus trees that had been retained from the original garden, towering Stelizia and Brugmansias in pots dripping in huge trumpet flowers. None are going to do so well in an English garden but one planting combination that could easily be replicated in a sunny spot is the hazy mix of Gaura  with the silver leaves of Artemisia. Although not everyone will be able to enjoy the setting sun illuminating the flowers in the evening with the stunning view of the calm sea and St Jean Cap Ferrat beyond!        

May 20th. Chelsea week.

As usual I was up at the crack of dawn to get to the Chelsea Flower show yesterday. I wasn't disappointed! The one garden that stood out for me was the Laurent-Perrier garden designed by Luciano Giubbilei.  The garden was simple and elegant. I loved the stepped hedging of Yew and box, as well as the stunning perennials in this years in colour palette 'bruised'. You can recreate this look using Peonia 'Buckeye Belle', Irises 'Deep Black', 'Interpol', 'Paint it black', 'Superstition' and 'Black Swan'. Allium atropurpureum, Aquelegia vulgaris var. stellata 'Ruby Port', Astantia major 'claret and 'Hadspen Blood'. Grasses Deschampsia cespitosa, Foeniculum vulgare  and calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' fill in the gaps. 

The other planting combination I loved was seen in the winning Daily Telegraph garden.  The silver leaves of Verbascum bomyciferum, Stachys byzantia 'silver carpet', lavandula silver sands' and Matthila incana with it's amazing scented white flowers rising above. This would work well in a dry sunny site. I shall certainly be finding a spot for this planting scheme!

May 5th. Open garden success.

It has been noted that I have been neglecting my blog readers lately. I've been neglecting little B too, he cried last week for his old Mummy back! Who'd have thought that you could feel guilty gardening! It's all been in aid of the National Gardens Scheme opening last weekend. It was a huge success with 500 visitors to the garden here across two afternoons. Thank you to everyone who came along and supported the event, with your help we raised £3000 for charity. If you missed it this time come along on June 14th or August 30th when the garden should be looking even better. 

Prior to the garden opening I had garden photographer Suzie Gibbons here for two days photographing the garden for next years magazines which is exciting. I haven't seen the pictures yet but she inspired me to get out there with my own camera to record what is in flower and where. The parterre (left) is looking pretty impressive at the moment with all the tulips out at once. It is particularly atmospheric on a misty morning very early or late evening when the tulips start to glow in the dark. The Yew shapes are only just getting going and will be quite impressive once they mature.

I love Cow parsley and leave it to grow in less formal areas of the garden. The sun in the picture below was just peeping over the hedge to illuminate the top of the flower heads whilst the rest remained in the shade. I love to gather armfuls of this and plonk it in a vase on it's own in the kitchen. 

10th Feb. First snow, now floods!

After the snow had thawed I thought we might be able to enjoy the first signs of spring now. No such luck. This photo was sent to me by a journalist taking pictures of crazy people attempting to drive through floods. The 'crazy person' here is the other half taking Little B to school this morning! No that is not a river he's in but the road that we travel up and down four times a day to get to the next village. As you can see if he had stuck to the road it would have ended in disaster! He chose instead to cut up the lovely grass verge that slopes up to a white picket fence. I hope there's not too much damage! Most people turned around and took a 15 minute detour, a few tried their luck and ended up being pulled out by the local farmer who popped back regularly on his tractor to see if anyone needed help. I think the husband was the only one to make it without writing off his car (just)!